Reconfigurable Dataflow Research Articles

A reconfigurable dataflow machine for implementing functional programming languages

Functional languages do away with the current state paradigm and achieve referential transparency. They also exhibit inherent parallelism. These qualities fit very well on top of a data-driven architecture such as a data flow machine. In this paper, we propose a fully reconfigurable data flow machine for implementing functional programming languages. The design is based on smart memories and nodes interconnected via a hypercube. Important aspects of the proposed model are described and compared with other similar attempts. Advantages of our system include massive parallelism, reconfigurability, and amenability to higher-level, graphical programming. Current limitations are identified and extensions are suggested.